HOT TOPICS
BIG Announcements and Upcoming Releases!
Our 20th State of Preschool Yearbook Report Will Be Released Thursday, May 18th
Don’t miss the release of our 2022 State of Preschool Yearbook next week! The 2022 Yearbook, our 20th report, focuses on the 2021-2022 school year, when we start to see recovery from the negative impacts of the pandemic. We also highlight how far we still need to go to return to pre-pandemic levels, and how much (or how little) progress has been made over the last two decades. Finally, we provide insights into new trends and what the future might hold.
The First Ever State(s) of Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education: Looking at Equity Report Will be Released May 23rd!
Following the Preschool Yearbook will be a new equity-focused report examining state-by-state federally funded programs for young children with disabilities. The report focuses on the 2020-2021 school year and trends over the past 15 years dating back to 2005-2006. The report identifies concerning inequities in access to EI and ECSE. Get the full report Tuesday, May 23rd
On May 16th, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will release their “Closing the Opportunity Gap for Young Children” Report + Attend the Webinar for a Comprehensive Overview of the Report
The report, authored by policy experts including Dr. Milagros Nores, Co-Director for Research at NIEER, synthesizes information on the relationship between the opportunity and achievement gaps for young children from birth to age eight and makes recommendations on how to improve conditions and promote success for children–at home, in communities, and in schools.
Register for the webinar https://bit.ly/42AqNGR
NIEER ACTIVITY
The article “New look at benefits of quality preschool education”, highlights the importance of early childhood education, based on our latest scientific review, Early Childhood Education: Health, Equity, and Economics, authored by Robert A. Hahn, adjunct faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at Emory University, and NIEER’s Senior Co-Director and Founder W. Steven Barnett. Scientific evidence finds that preschool education for 3- and 4-year-olds can improve health and longevity and reduce persistent educational gaps.
Read the op-ed.
Read the review.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CHILD CARE AND EDUCATION POLICY
Weekly Feature
Global Tracking of Access and Quality in Early Childhood Care and Education
Researchers outlined the current status of global measurement of access to quality ECCE and identified issues with definitions, availability, and accuracy of ECCE data across countries and outlined paths forward. Their research argues that “estimates of access to ECCE should be based on children’s participation in quality ECCE across multiple program types, rather than enrollment or attendance alone.
Read more.
Publish in the International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy (IJCCEP)
- It’s FREE – article processing charges for all articles published in the journal are fully sponsored.
- The journal is indexed by Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) and by Scopus.
- All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 license. Authors will retain copyright.
ECE RESEARCH
Early Stimulation and Enhanced Preschool: A Randomized Trial
When researchers in Odisha, India, studied the impacts of 2 interventions, early stimulation (ES) for children younger than three and enhanced preschool (EP) for children older than three, they found both ES and EP increased IQ and school readiness, however, only ES impacts were sustained for 15 months after the trial implementation.
Read more here.
Assessment of an Educational Classroom App’s Impact on Preschoolers’ Early Numeracy Skills
Researchers found that students in an experimental treatment group that used the AppL-N early numeracy app in collaboration with traditional classroom teaching saw positive impacts on early numeracy skills. The study was the first quasi-experimental study of an educational app to be conducted in France’s preschools.
Read more.
In this study, researchers suggest that school climate may be another lever for mitigating disparities in certain elements of pre-K quality. There is a greater focus on improving the quality of pre-K for students of color as national attention has turned towards universal pre-K to reduce opportunity gaps. This study offers evidence-based support for improving school climate to help mitigate inequitable pre-K quality.
Read more.
The Process of Scaling Early Childhood Violence Prevention Programs in Jamaica
In this article, researchers document how they applied implementation science principles in the design, implementation, evaluation, and initial scaling of 2 complementary early childhood violence prevention and caregiver training programs in Jamaica. Understanding that early childhood interventions are a core component of violence prevention; researchers wanted to promote a consistent approach to reducing violence against children, reducing child behavior problems, and increasing caregiver and child competencies across both home and school.
Read the article here.
Researchers in Malaysia found The Stop and Play digital health intervention effectively reduced screen time among preschool children from low socioeconomic families while improving the associated parental factors. As screen time becomes more prevalent, researchers sought to develop, implement, and evaluate technology-based parent-friendly screen time reduction interventions.
Read the study here.
OPPORTUNITIES AND JOB OPENINGS
The Foundation for Child Development is currently accepting proposals for its 2024 Young Scholars Program
YSP supports scholarships for early-career researchers. The program funds implementation research that is policy and practice relevant, and that examines the preparation, competency, compensation, well-being, and ongoing professional learning of the early care and education workforce. To increase the diversity of research perspectives, the Foundation encourages applications from scholars who are from underrepresented groups and scholars who represent a variety of disciplines and methodological approaches. Letter of Intent deadline Tuesday, June 13, 2023, at 8 PM ET. Apply here
More Opportunities
Early Childhood Systems Consultant- Remote, ICF International, Inc.
Director, Maryland Early Childhood Leadership Program
Vice President of Policy and Government Relations, JumpStart
Early Childhood Associate/Senior Associate, School Readiness Consulting
Principal Associate – Early Childhood Advising & Strategy Focused, School Readiness Consulting
Early Childhood Policy Fellowship, Bank Street College
Policy and Planning Division Director, Office of Head Start (OHS)